Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats,

British political party created in 1988 by the merger of the Liberal partyLiberal party,former British political party, the dominant political party in Great Britain for much of the period from the mid-1800s to World War I. Origins.....Click the link for more information. with the Social Democratic partySocial Democratic party(SDP), former British political party founded in 1981 to offer a centrist alternative to the more extreme positions of the then ruling Conservative party on the right and the opposition Labour party on the left......Click the link for more information.; the party was initially called the Social and Liberal Democratic party. The Social Democratic party, which was formed in 1981 by politically centrist members of the Labour partyLabour party,British political party, one of the two dominant parties in Great Britain since World War I. Origins

The Labour party was founded in 1900 after several generations of preparatory trade union politics made possible by the Reform Bills of 1867 and 1884,.....Click the link for more information., joined with the Liberals in 1981 in an electoral alliance, and in 1983 they won 23 seats in the House of Commons. In 1987 the alliance won 22 seats, and the next year the parties merged. In the 2001 and 2005 parliamentary elections the Liberal Democrats won 52 and 62 seats respectively. The 2005 result was the largest number won by the group since the predecessor Liberals gained 158 seats in 1924. Although the party lost several seats in the 2010 elections (despite increasing its overall share of the vote), it entered the government in coalition with the Conservatives, who had secured only a plurality. Nonetheless, the party remains something of a minor party in British politics, its centrist position threatened by Tony BlairBlair, Tony(Anthony Charles Lynton Blair), 1953–, British politician, b. Edinburgh. An Oxford-educated lawyer, he was first elected to Parliament in 1983 as the Labour party candidate from a district in N England......Click the link for more information.'s movement of the Labour party away from socialist positions in the 1990s and David CameronCameron, David William Duncan, 1966–, British political leader, b. London. Educated at Eton and Oxford, he worked for the Conservative party's research department beginning in 1988, became an adviser to two high-ranking government ministers, and headed corporate.....Click the link for more information.'s moderation of the Conservative party in the 2000s. Its ability to win seats also has been hampered by Britain's lack of proportional representation. Although the party secured a referendum on an alternative voting method through its participation in a coalition with the Conservatives, voters rejected the proposal in 2011. Nick CleggClegg, Nick(Nicholas William Peter Clegg), 1967–, British politician, grad. Cambridge (M.A., 1989), College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium (M.A., 1992). Of British, Russian, and Dutch descent, he worked for the European Commission (1994–99) before he entered politics......Click the link for more information. became party leader in 2007, but stepped down in 2015 after the party suffered large losses in seats and vote share. Tim Farron succeeded Clegg as party leader. Although the party gained some seats in 2017, Farron stepped down as leader, and Vince Cable succeeded him.

Similarly, Labour gained 12 seats from the Liberal Democrats, and surprisingly, in England and Wales, the Liberal Democrats retained seven constituencies, even though their average support fell by 25 per cent, because Labour, Conservative, UKIP and Green candidates were uncompetitive.

There are plenty of very controversial issues that the Liberal Democrats are supplying the votes that allow the Conservatives to push them through: such as the deepest spending cuts in recent history, and supporting the Nato force in Libya despite the questions in parliament on how the UN mandate will be stretched well beyond breaking point.

Mr Bradley warned the party leader that long-serving Lib Dem councillors were set to lose their seats in elections on May 5 "not because of their record, but because of your record and the perception of what we as Liberal Democrats now are".

London, Apr 16(ANI): A new poll has put Britain's Conservative Party ahead of the ruling Labour Party and Liberal Democrats, but it could be a "terrible" news for opposition leader David Cameron if the Labour and Liberal Democrats form a coalition.

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